Tyler Shegerian, Strategic Advisor for ERI, the nation’s leading material resource recovery, ITAD, mobility and data destruction/processing provider and largest recycler of electronics, was among the featured speakers at a special invitation-only round table at the 2026 Defense Industrial Base Accelerator (DIBX), in Philadelphia last week.
The roundtable, titled “The Above Ground Mine: Recycling and Recovering Critical Minerals,” gathered invited experts assembled by the Department of War (DoW). With the DoW building a more resilient domestic industrial base, the goal was to host a roundtable of shared knowledge and best practices on the extraction of critical minerals. The group discussed how securing critical minerals is no longer just about mining; it is about reclaiming value from end-of-life electronic devices, materials, batteries, and e-waste and turning them into the building blocks of defense technology.
Topics on the table included prioritizing recovery as a strategic asset; elevating critical mineral recycling from a nascent industry initiative to a national security priority; turning DoW end-of-life electronics, batteries and e-waste into critical mineral recycling feedstock; and DoW’s commitment to provide feedstock to help secure the defense industrial base (DIB) supply chain.
Among other insights, Shegerian described how collection, sorting, pre-processing and processing capacity is far underutilized in the United States and shared how ERI has significant capacity to grow inbound volumes exponentially without a tremendous amount of additional capital expenditure required in the near term.
In July, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to strengthen domestic and allied supply chains for critical materials needed for advanced defense technologies. The administration has also moved to restrict exports of certain recoverable critical-material waste streams, including battery waste and tungsten scrap, so more of those resources can be processed domestically.
“I’m honored to have been invited to participate in this important discussion alongside experts and industry colleagues,” said Shegerian. “Our friends at the DoW continue to produce vitally important events, exploring the timely and impactful topic of recovering critical minerals from the ‘above ground mine.’ Last week’s informative gathering was no exception.”
ERI is the nation’s leading material resource recovery, ITAD and mobility recycling company. ERI is certified at the highest level by all leading environmental and data security oversight organizations to de-manufacture, recycle, and refurbish every type of electronic device in an environmentally responsible manner. It is the first company in its industry to achieve ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications for security and data protection. ERI has the capacity to process more than a billion pounds of electronic waste annually at its nine certified locations, serving every zip code in the United States. ERI’s mission is to protect people, the planet and privacy. For more information about ITAD services and e-waste recycling at ERI, call 1-800-ERI-DIRECT or visit https://eridirect.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260903040520/en/
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